Back in town - barely

Good morning all. Today is July 11, 2010. My birthday is in 2 days. I have a busy week ahead of me.

I write from my apartment in Twinsburg, OH. I have been away from my apartment for quite a while now, and when I got back last night, it felt a little unfamiliar. I was surprised at just how messy it was. That was a little disappointment. I remember that before I left for Oklahoma, I had left things in a mess. And when I got back from Oklahoma for that one night, I didn't do much cleaning, as I was too caught up with recovering from the long trip, and preparing for my trip to Arkansas.

Well, Arkansas was a blast. Shame on me for pre-judging Arkansas. I had such terrible notions about what Arkansas would be about. I visited our plant there in March or February (I forget when), and even though I loved Jonesboro, I convinced myself that Jonesboro was an island of civilization in a backward, back-water state. Well, Little Rock changed that. First, the airport is as modern as any other I have seen in recent times. Heck it's a lot better than the airport at New Haven, which (as I think I blogged about), is a disgrace of a room-and-parlor organization with just two gates that are about 10 feet apart. No missing your flight because you couldn't get to the gate in time at that airport.

Back to Arkansas.

My trip to Arkansas was eventful. A little background first. The main reason I had to go to Arkansas was that my company was sending 20 people in my plant to Arkansas, as part of a team-building initiative. We all work together, but really never thought of one another as a solid, indivisible team, mostly because we work at different times, and sometimes do not see each other for weeks on end. In any case, we all had to go to this place called Team Trek. We were scheduled to fly into Little Rock, and then take a shuttle from Little Rock to a little place called Tumbling Shoals. Now I admit I did not do my homework on this trip. Our assistant booked the flights, but I did not find out how I would get from the airport at Little Rock to Tumbling Shoals, which is about 90 minutes away. At the Cleveland airport, I saw a co-worker, who informed me that there was a shuttle to get us from Little Rock to Tumbling Shoals. Turns out she was right. We were due to arrive Little Rock around 01:10pm, and there was a shuttle at 01:30pm to take us there. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the flight out of Cleveland going to Chicago was delayed. By the time that flight landed Chicago, the flight out of Chicago going to Little Rock was boarding. I mentioned that I met a coworker on the plane. Her name is Yolanda. Well, when our plane landed in Chicago 9about a half-hour late), Yolanda ran out of the plane and caught the flight to Little Rock. Me, on the other hand, had some plane-side hand luggage which I had to retrieve. So I waited.


And waited.

And waited.

And finally got the luggage.

But missed the flight to Little Rock.

What now?

It was the first flight I ever missed. Considering that I have been a relentless road warrior over the past 18 months, that is a little surprising. I also like to think that I plan my flights very wisely, but in this case, I did not book my flight. Our assistant did. Which is not to say it was her fault, because it really was not, but...

It was already a tight connection in the first place (about a 45 minute layover), but since the inbound flight was delayed, I had no chance. I got to the gate just as boarding ended. The monitor said "Boarding for the Flight to Little Rock is complete". Yikes! Oops!

I was pissed.

It was my first time flying American Airlines, if I am not mistaken, and the experience was horrible (since they delayed the inbound flight and knew I was on that flight).

In any case, I spoke with the man at the counter, who was nice enough to inform me that "2 people from your flight made the connection to Little Rock".

Well, well, well... is this how this is gonna go down? They'll try to blame me for this? I explained the circumstances to the foolish man, who eventually backed down and put me on the next flight to Little Rock, about 4 hours later.

In the interim, I was on the phone with HR at my company (including our assistant, who was awesome about everything, and who booked for a separate car to pick me up when I arrived Little Rock).

I arrived Little Rock around 05:30pm or thereabouts, and thankfully my luggage was there. I was driven by a really cool driver to Tumbling Shoals (we talked the whole way about his life, my life, Nigeria, West Africa, ghettoes, poverty, Princeton, Newark, Yale, etc). It was quite awesome.

Oh, by the way, Yolanda had gone ahead and narrated my situation to the rest of the group. You see, the group took different routes to get to Little Rock. We flew out of Cleveland at different times (7am, 10am, what not). sometimes 2 or 3 people from the plant were on the same flight, sometimes about 10 were on the same flight, etc. Some flights went to North Carolina, others went to Dallas, etc.

From North Carolina, Dallas, what not, we all then flew to Little Rock; the idea was that everyone would get to Little Rock at around 01:00pm, and the shuttle would take us away at 01:30pm. Well, of the 20 people expected to be at Little Rock Airport by 01:30pm, 19 showed up. No prices for guessing who didn't show up!

Well, my manager excused himself from the group - he got a charter car and drove himself. So 18 people made the trip in the shuttle, instead of 19.

In any case, I made it to tumbling Shoals later in the day. But only after I got a voice message from my boss asking me to buy some booze along the way. And then another voice message came in asking me to buy some Jack Daniels along the way, too. Hilarious. When I saw that he had left me a voice message, I thought he would be inquiring about my welfare, but alas, that was not the case. He was instead thinking of liquor. Hilarious!

I couldn't buy either, since the company had specifically instructed the limousine company that we could only stop the car to make restroom breaks. Any other thing was forbidden. Strange, but true.

So I got to Team Trek liquor-less.

And found out that Yolanda had made it, but her luggage had not. Since she was literally the last person to get on the plane, her luggage was not checked in with her, and it was left behind. We would later find out that her luggage came on my flight, and since she was not there to receive it at Little Rock, it was left behind there. FedEx would not deliver that night. Or the following morning either. Not until 04:30pm the next day!

In any case, Team Trek was awesome. The first night, I arrived late. Too late for dinner, so I missed dinner. But my lovely co-workers had saved me dinner. I loved that fact. I ate the dinner hurriedly (baked potato and some roast chicken! It was awesome).


First a little description of the setting. Team Trek is set in a remote area in Arkansas (really remote area, but my GPS got us there, thankfully!). The site is made of different cute cabins, set on several acres of land (at least 30 acres, if I were to guess). The rooms are bunk-style (yes, like back in a dormitory), but they are incredibly comfortable and really awesome. Thick mattresses, clean sheets, good lighting, good restrooms, etc. The only complain was that the shower stalls were a little tiny. Everything else was awesome. I was in a room with 8 beds (so 4 bunks), but luckily did not have to climb up or down, because there were just 4 women, so each of us chose the bottom bunk. Well, the following day was Outdoors day, where we were to learn about team building and trust through outdoors-y activities. I tell you, it was frightening.

Our group of 20 was split into two groups, naturally of 10 each. Since there were just 4 women, each group had 2 women. Each group had a guide, who was a trained coach on the Team Trek staff. They gave lectures on team building, but also handled the outdoors stuff (so safety, logistics, operations, etc). When I got there in the evening, they were all at a lecture, which was completed after I had my dinner. We were told to be ready at 06:30am for breakfast, and by 07:00am, we should all be back in the classroom. I tell ya, I was so excited: it was awesome!

Well, the first test for our team of 10 came by going into the jungle. We were taken to complete a 'task'. Before we reached the site, the instructor (his name is Nick) told us that he wanted all of us to commit to the task. We all said 'yes', that we would do the task. Now, before we even set out that morning (Wednesday), we were given a safety briefing, 2 harnesses, a helmet, etc. The kind of stuff you'll need to go bungee jumping. I started to suspect that we might all have to do that....

In any case, it was not bungee jumping. Instead we stopped somewhere in the jungle and came to a really tall tree. On the trunk of the tree were steps, the kind of steps that mountain climbers usually use as footholds. 40 feet in the air was a platform, about 20 feet across (the actual numbers are 38feet and 18 feet, but who cares, right?). About 7 feet away from the platform was a bar, about 4 feet wide. It appeared that the objective was to climb the tree, walk across the platform (which, by the way, had no railings to hang on to), and then leap out and catch the dangling bar. Oh, yeah, there were ropes we would attach to our harness for safety. The fun part, though, was that the ropes would be held down by the rest of your teammates. In other words, you had to trust them with your life. I tell you, it was scary. Nick told us to first sit down and write down our thoughts. I wrote what I just narrated above, that the objective appeared to be climbing the tree, walking across the platform, and then jumping. I added that that seemed impossible, as it simply looked too tall and too far, etc.

Well, it was. And I did it. I was the 3rd person to go, and my co-workers held me down. I didn't catch the bar, but that was not the objective. It was to conquer fear, and for me, I had long knew that I was afraid of heights. It was awesome. I loved it, especially when I missed the bar, and felt the tug of my harness as my teammates (9 of them), held me back so I could be safely lowered to the ground.

What else?

After that, we had other things to do. We had to catch a vial of "contaminated" material from the middle of a field, without going into the field. In effect we had to use a lasso. Then we had to get all 10 of us across a tight rope (yes, I walked a tight rope, albeit with a harness). Afterwards, one of us had to climb another really high tight rope while the rest of us held him down. I was not the chosen one - it was another guy. That was pretty awesome.

The next day, we had another challenge - this one was to get out of a contaminated "nuclear" zone. We failed on this challenge, because we didn't ask one of our teammates (who had a radio) the right questions, or communicate correctly with him . After this day, we watched a movie that demonstrated the importance of team building: Remember the Titans. I quite liked it. Many people in the room had seen it before - I'd never seen it before, and I quite enjoyed it! It's apparently based on a true story. Very interesting!

Finally, we had a grand challenge, which was to build a boat. But first we had to find the items to build the boat. You guessed it. The items were scattered across acres and acres and acres of land. And we had to find the items, one of which would "expire" after a few hours. There were about 23 or 24 items in all We were given radios for communication, maps for finding our way, compasses for navigation, basic training on how to use these, and a slap on the back for good luck. It was kind of like a reality show.

We split into teams, including a stationary headquarters, which would eventually realize that we needed them out there, so they gave up coordinating activities from a "control" base and actually went out there to look for stuff. It was amazing. I was part of a group that had to find 6 items. Each item was given a number or a letter or a combination, each of which was attached to a tree. We had to find the numbers or letters and call them in as we did.

My group was led by a Canadian man who had hiked the Grand Canyon. No, I mean really hiked at the Grand Canyon. He went inside the Grand Canyon and back out.

o_O

I, the couch potato, am 25 pounds overweight and cannot remember the last time I did any real exercise. Also in my group was a nice man with a lot of endurance (he is about 50 years old, but he does a lot of exercise). And a Vietnam vet. And another guy who is about my age, but still, another man. Men of that age are typically really fit. You can understand why I would struggle a little. Or at least think I would.


In the end, there were only 2 people who did not stop for a break. The Grand Canyon man and... myself. I was so proud. It took us about 3 hours to find all the items. I was proud of my Geography lessons from secondary school, as I was able to read the map flawlessly..

Next day, early in the morning (Friday), we built the boat using 55-gallon drums (6 in all). We chose 6 rowers, and tried to beat a record set by another company. We failed at the record, but were all so proud of our effort, that we didn't care. We all got in the water (eventhough I cannot swim), and took pictures. Then we went over each person's Coat of Arms, where we talked about our lives: the defining moments (for me, the day my father bought a computer and also the day my brother got his hand caught in a running blender). From those two days, I said a) a new world was opened up to me through the computer (i.e. science, because I spent a lot of time reading encyclopedias on CDs and Disks), and b) I learned through my brother's physical pain and my mother's anguish, that I did not want to become a doctor. We talked of our strongest and weakest points (mine were for strongest: curiosity, fact-based decisions a.k.a. objectivity in inherently subjective matters and for weakest: level-headedness - oft mistaken for coldness, curiosity -oft mistaken for nosiness and being judgemental, and on the latter point, I narrated the story of a mechanic I know, who has a tough-guy demeanor and tattoos all over his body. Alas, he is cute as a bunny in reality, watching chick flicks all day long. Yet I had assumed he would be the kind of person watching slashers all day. I was wrong. I had made assumptions about him, but his reality ended up being so different from my picture of his life, that I was thoroughly ashamed when I eventually got to know him).

We also spoke of governing values. I chose four: temperance, faith (not in a particular religion, but in a Higher Power - this is not exactly true, but...), generosity (since I relied on this from other people to get me through college). We also talked about something we have that money cannot buy & death cannot erase, and I mentioned my college degree, because I paid a total of $0 for it, and, well, even if the paper copy disappears, the process of going through college will never be taken from me. We talked about what we want to be remembered for after we die, and I said I want to be remembered for conquering my fears. I actually quoted Fela, and his "The secret to life is to have no fear" quote. Then the other 19 people had their own presentations about their quote of arms, and that was it.

There were many revelations during this coat of arms stuff. One lady told us her mother had passed away 15 years before, of bone marrow cancer. Another told us about how he had a son, only to find out 2 weeks later that the child was not his. Another told us of having twins born on Christmas Eve, only for them to die on New Year's Eve. It was quite revealing.

Afterwards, we parted - it was emotional, and it was difficult to say goodbye to everyone.

The best part of the whole thing was the personal growth for me and for everyone else over the past few years. I also got to spend a lot of time with some of my coworkers, which was a lot of fun! We roamed the Chicago airport and ate and rambled about, etc. I had a good time, actually.

I got back to Cleveland Airport around 11:30pm, and got in bed at 11:45pm on Friday night. I stayed at the Airport hotel (a Sheraton, which was very nice), and then drove to Columbus on Saturday morning, and back in the evening. I don't need to mention the fact that i was exhausted by the time I got back.

So I took a step back recently and checked all the traveling I have done over the past 2 weeks. I went from Cleveland (on Friday July 2nd) to Minneapolis to Tulsa (Oklahoma) where I stayed for one night at a hotel to Stillwater (Oklahoma) to Tulsa (Oklahoma) to Stillwater, back to Tulsa, and then to Tennessee and then to Cleveland and Twinsburg, then after one night in Twinsburg, back to Cleveland, to Chicago, to Little Rock to Tumbling Shoals, back to Little Rock, to Chicago, to Cleveland, then one night at a hotel in Cleveland, then to Columbus yesterday (Saturday) before driving back to Twinsburg in the evening.

o_O

Needless to say, I plan to remain in Ohio until September. I will make about 4-6 trips to Columbus between now and September, and Inshallah (no, I'm not a Muslim), make a trip to California in September and Texas in November and possibly again in December. But I really want to take it easy now...

Oh, yeah, the World Cup finals was played today. Holland vs. Spain. Two perennial losers. Spain won, 1-0, as they have other games in this tournament. I kind of watched the match, and did laundry and cleaned my apartment at the same time. To be honest, the match was a disaster. Did I mention that the officiating (by Howard Webb, a Brit) was a bloody disgrace? The ref, at a point, gave a yellow card for a foul he did not see. Indeed I believe he gave the card because the Spanish player play-acted and screamed like a little school girl). The match itself? Boring. Negative. Lots of fouls by the Dutch. Lots of diving by the Spaniards. Just before the goal, I texted my pal Tim in NJ and told him that the game needed some excitement, like a headbutt as we had the other time in the 2006 finals, and lo and behold, we got a red card shortly after that. Following that, Spain scored a goal, Casillas burst into tears, and at the final whistle some on the Dutch team started crying like a bunch of school girls. I didn't really stick around to watch the celebrations, so terrible was the match. I think it's the most boring World Cup finals I have seen since... well, ever... perhaps 1990, cos I don't really remember that one. 1994 was really exciting. As was 1998, as was 2002, and 06, and now this. Yuk. I am glad this useless World Cup is well behind us!

In any case, after the boring match, I watched "Behind the Music" on VH1, with Jennifer Hudson. And, right after that, was a movie on VH1. "Remember the Titans". I laughed out loud when I saw that.

What next now, after this long blog post? I have to clean my apartment a bit more, and then after that, possibly watch the show "The Next Food Network Star". And then go to sleep. This week is a big one for me at work, so I have to be on my A-game!

OK, that's it for now. Take care!!